Your body deserves to be healthy. It wants to be healthy, and it craves being healthy. That’s why you feel better when you’re in good health.
That’s just a simple fact about how we’re made as humans. No matter your health status—overweight, underweight, inactive, too active, stressed or bored—your body wants to be healthy. It’s true for every single person.
So why do you keep pushing employee wellness as a solution to a problem, or a punishment for bad behavior?
Let’s just be clear: Healthy choices are not a punishment for unhealthy behaviors or even “bad genes.” Neither is employee wellness. But what are they?
A Healthy Choice Is a Promise
Making healthy choices is like promising yourself that you’ll take care of the little things so the big things can be made possible down the road. It’s a promise for your future—for future activity, future laughs, future joy, future accomplishments and future relationships.
A healthy choice means valuing your future enough to invest in it. It means taking the time to make sure what you do now sets you up for where you want to be later. It’s a promise that the future will be better and you’re going to make sure that happens.
A Healthy Choice Is a Celebration
Healthy choices help you to celebrate the things your body can do. And let’s be honest—your body is capable of some pretty incredible things. Bet on yourself and celebrate what you can do by giving your body what it needs to function on all cylinders.
Every time you give your body the healthy things it craves—nutritious foods, activity, sleep and relaxation—your insides have a little party. Which is why you feel great!
A Healthy Choice Is a Reward
Your body works hard to keep up with the things your heart and mind get set on. It puts up with the bumps and bruises, the long nights and early mornings, the cold when you forgot your jacket and the time changes when you want to travel the world. When you think about it, your body is pretty amazing—regardless of your current health status.
So we think it’s earned a prize. And like we said, your body wants to be healthy—it craves healthy decisions. Making healthy choices is like giving your body the exact reward it’s been striving towards all these years. It’s one way to positively reinforce how your body handles the craziness of your life.
Healthy choices and a healthy lifestyle should never be thought of as a negative thing or some type of punishment. It’s time for you to recognize that in your employee wellness program.
Be sure your employees realize the role healthy choices play in their lives. They’re not a punishment or something to be feared. They’re a promise, a celebration and a reward for a body that works hard.
Are you trapped in the negative portrayal of healthy choices? What’s your plan to switch your mindset?
